contact / help

This is inspector Zorg, reporting back
To the galactic order on assorted facts
Collected from the planet in the 42nd sector
Where the radio waves were detected

As directed, I came to investigate it
To see whether an intelligent civilization
Had emerged, and determine whether it’s worth
Establishing a diplomatic channel with earth

Which is still in its late juvenile phase
And remains likely to self-annihilate
So I made an assessment of the entire range
Of the planet’s native biological agents

The most common is a basic single-celled
Liquid dweller, cells that stick together
Form colonies of trillions called “bodies”
That develop from single-celled progeny

You already know, natural selection
Designs organisms to maximize descendants
And the life forms here are no exception
All descended from a common ancestor

Including one ape species that’s an oddity
The radio waves came from its technology
And you’re not gonna believe it on Betelgeuse
But these apes often choose not to reproduce

In fact, most of their time is wasted
Emanating strange noises from their faces
Instead of baby makin’, sonic arrangements
Of which this report is a demonstration

Can you see?
Can you see from space?

Every species of ape
Comes from the same DNA
Genes rearrange
‘Cause they don’t breed the same
Some genes make brains
Where memes compete and change
And these days
Apes can see from space

This bipedal ape species, these “humans”
Don’t even have tentacles like Betelgeuseans
Its limbs are modified fins
And its jaws are just modified gill slits

It’s a mammal, it’s got mammal habits
But it’s actually just an adapted “land fish”
And like fish, each one has two parents
Each one of two morphological variants

Male and female, they’re called sexes
And with some exceptions they behave different
The males are physically bigger and more aggressive
More prone to stupid risks and more reckless

As expected, that’s what mammals are like
Females reward the winner after the fight
Or choose among contenders selectively
While males mate more opportunistically

Except in these humans
Females display too, and males do some choosing
Especially when investing in offspring
And long-term costly signaling of monogamy

Humans are odd things, I tried to determine
Whether each behavior comes from instinct or learning
Just don’t ask them which is which
They don’t know, and they find the question offensive

Can you see?
Can you see from space?

Every species of ape
Comes from the same DNA
Genes rearrange
‘Cause they don’t breed the same
Some genes make brains
Where memes compete and change
And these days
Apes can see from space

These humans evolved their brains in odd ways
Wishful thinking makes them fall for con games
Betelgeusians evolved to know ourselves
Humans evolved to blame flaws on someone else

And take credit for gains, they jockey for status
Overdosing on calories, adapted to famines
They’re phobic of absent snakes and arachnids
With no fear of traffic or cigarette ashes

Most believe in telepathic gods and ghosts
And pretend to know things they obviously don’t
They form coalitions and reject evidence
If the facts are a threat to their tribal memberships

And yet, they are master cooperators
Space station making disease eradicators
They display a primitive collective intelligence
And sometimes even assist non-relatives

It’s amazing, what these apes have achieved
Their brains are a teeming accumulation of memes
Ideas, tactics and tool-making schemes
Which remain unmastered until their late teens

They only just found out how evolution works
And how it illuminates every mood and urge
Just give ‘em a few years and they might deserve
The name of Ape that Understood the Universe

Can you see?
Can you see from space?

Every species of ape
Comes from the same DNA
Genes rearrange
‘Cause they don’t breed the same
Some genes make brains
Where memes compete and change
And these days
Apes can see from space

Track Name: Confessions of a Skeptic

I confess it, I’m a skeptic
I believe in the scientific method
I believe in reason and evidence
And things bein’ tested

I’m really not tryin’ to be rude
When I tell people “I don’t believe you”
I believe you believe it to be true
But I want to see some peer review
Human being are oh so deceivable
Oh so promiscuous with what’s believable
I’m old fashioned, I just want to see if it’s repeatable
With a mechanism that’s conceivable
Don’t dismiss this as if I’m “just a hater”
If you make the claim, you’re the instigator
I just wanna see if that claim can be replicated
In the presence of a skeptical investigator
I’m not scoffin’ – if it’s true, that’s awesome
And until proven, my thoughts are agnostic
Open minded, seeking truth, hopin’ to find it
Tryin’ to light a candle instead of gropin’ blindly

I confess it, I’m a skeptic
I believe in the scientific method
I believe in reason and evidence
And things bein’ tested

But I believe in people too
I may not believe in the things you do
But I believe in you
You too can seek the truth

I don’t believe in telepathy
I don’t believe in “chi energy”
I don’t believe in any kind of energy
That Stephen Hawking hasn’t been measuring
Physics, it can measure neutrinos
Hundreds of billions are passing through people
Every single second, that’s something we know
But no instrument can detect “chi” though?
We could measure it with a fake needle
Acupuncture it with a placebo
And if the effect is no less feeble
That’s where medicine stops and psychology goes
Belief – it’s oh so powerful
That’s why we need to hold it accountable
If you know, then please show me how you know
And if you don’t, it’s okay to say “I don’t know”

I confess it, I’m a skeptic
I believe in the scientific method
I believe in reason and evidence
And things bein’ tested

But I believe in people too
I may not believe in the things you do
But I believe in you
You too can seek the truth

Excuse me for rhapsodizing
But fake news and alternative facts are rising
Quack medicine keeps on metastasizing
But there’s a miracle cure, is that surprising?
It’s called the scientific method
If you think a thing is true, investigate and test it
Never forget that your memory’s selective
You have incentives to forget the negative
I was thinkin’ about my friend all day
And then improbably, my friend called me
But every time I thought about ‘em and they didn’t call
There was no story, so the memory dissolved
The mind play tricks, and we can learn to spot ‘em
Evolution even teaches us how we got ‘em
So learn to love facts and you might just get a passion
To put that skepticism into action

I confess it, I’m a skeptic
I believe in the scientific method
I believe in reason and evidence
And things bein’ tested

But I believe in people too
I may not believe in the things you do
But I believe in you
You too can seek the truth

Track Name: Fahrenheit 45

This is fun! As far as temperature is concerned
I spit it 451, it’s a pleasure to burn
Fiction, non-fiction, prose, narrative verse
Nabakov, Shakespeare, literature

Gets turned into ashes in a blast of petroleum
I’m grinnin’ into the flames when I’m throwin’ them
I’m looking’ into the future, is it dystopian?
What’s the harm in burnin’ a book if nobody’s holdin’ it?

Crack it open, nothing but ink and paper
Don’t blame the death of it on the village incinerator
Nothin’ but information physically disintegrating
Save the vegetation, give it to the digital innovators

Books are never gonna be banned, just scanned
And delivered to the palm of your hand, this is planned
Obsolescence, Ozymandius falls into sand
If we’re too busy to read it, digest it and understand

Understand? That’s how history’s curves go
No need for old geezers creepin’ on dirt roads
Commit it to memory!? No, read it on your phone
I’m just gonna check my social media first though…

Daredevils, sex and heroin
If the play sucks just sting ‘em with the theremin
Motorbikes, helicopters, jets
Everything to do with automatic reflex

Retail, death of attention to detail
Loss of freedom, not all at once, piecemeal
Small opportunities for rebelling
Truth, lies, and storytelling

Truth, lies, and storytelling (Repeat)

Remember the feelin’ of chillin’ under a tree with a book?
The tactility, the smell of it? That feeling was good
Remember that? How much would you give to get it back?
I try to picture it – all I can see now is a Kindle app

The ink is still black, but now it’s a digital article
And my attention span is a little bit less methodical
Less knowledgable, I sped up quick after starting slow
I don’t even use Kindle now, I switched to Audible

That’s how the story goes, the fire is metaphorical
The seashell in my ears, increasin’ my freedom forty fold
The voice in my head, spinnin’ a thread, but nobody’s home
Any thoughts of my own get burned into “holy smokes”

I listen to podcasts, and watch the political conflag
Like Mrs Montag, feelin’ like everything’s gone bad
Another sexual predator’s about to be given a hall pass
Another presidential affiliate caught red-handed

Like an episode of Cops: Special Prosecutor Edition
I try not to watch but I’m itchin’, I got a news addiction
I used to think thoughts, now I’m glued to the feed
Talkin’ to friends like: “the Orange Clown’s on again, have you seen?”

Fake news beamed into the parlor to prop the scam up
Reading suddenly becomes an oasis in the hot savannah
Conspiracies among readers who want some answers
Switch off the state television propaganda!

Daredevils, sex and heroin
If the play sucks just sting ‘em with the theramin
Motorbikes, helicopters, jets
Everything to do with automatic reflex

Retail, death of attention to detail
Loss of freedom, not all at once, piecemeal
Small opportunities for rebelling
Truth, lies, and storytelling

Truth, lies, and storytelling (Repeat)

I got sick of chief Beatty gaslightin’
Got enlightened, talked to Faber, got the bug for writin’
Like Bradbury in a library basement typin’
Into devices, never paper fetishizin’

Senses Fahren-heightened, sensitive to fascism
Books died ‘cause they got adapted into rap rhythm
Not a shallow pleasure, a tactic to hack systems
Freedom is needed, nostalgia for the past isn’t

Never try and cage thoughts, let a mind range
Sometimes it’ll take sedatives over migraines
And settle into repetitive blind ways
Like Oedipus, wandering in his dying days

Censorship, it starts from the bottom up
People thinkin’ that they’re motivated by a lot of love
We must protect the weak, but it’s not enough
Dangerous ideas must be banned from above

Wait! Before you try to call in a leviathan
A salamander to fry it all in fireball
Try a small thing called dialogue
You might just find it viable

Daredevils, sex and heroin
If the play sucks just sting ‘em with the theremin
Motorbikes, helicopters, jets
Everything to do with automatic reflex

Retail, death of attention to detail
Loss of freedom, not all at once, piecemeal
Small opportunities for rebelling
Truth, lies, and storytelling

Truth, lies, and storytelling (Repeat)

Track Name: Erosion

Mr. Donald Trump, you’re not my president
‘Cause I’m not a citizen, just another immigrant
A permanent resident stuck in the midst of it
Rubber-neckin’ as America drove off a cliff, thinkin’
I wish I could vote, but not for you though
Hell no, I voted for Justin Trudeau
Here’s a couple things that I think you know
Even if you act in public like you don’t
Climate change, you know that it’s happening
Know that its impact is already damaging
You said so! A permit you applied for
Said the ocean’s comin’ up on your Irish golf course
Well here’s another place you might like to protect
America. It’s likewise under threat
Sea level rise, extreme weather events
Infrastructure risk is bad for business
So I made a list, to help you keep track
And since you don’t read, I squeezed it in a rap
Would’ve put it in a tweet if I could achieve that
The seaside’s about to need an evac

Erosion
Of coastlines, riverbeds
Of time left, only chance we’re gonna get
Erosion
Of ice in the glaciers
United nations, isolation
Erosion
Of faith in democracy
Your face in the dictionary next to hypocrisy
Erosion, erosion, erosion

Mr. President
Stickin’ your head in the sand is not principled
The rate of sea level rise in Florida tripled
In one decade, and that’s easy to count
It’s back when Billy Bush and you were hangin’ around
Demonstrating your scruples, and since those days
The tidal flooding in Miami Beach has quadrupled
And that’s great for business if you sell water pumps
But not for local residents who voted Donald Trump
So what you gonna do now? Lose Mar-a-Lago?
Or try to move it all to higher ground in Colorado?
Some people try to tell me that you’re all bravado
But I think you’ve got a calculation under all the guano
Come on though, what’s Tampa supposed to do if
Another storm floods the bay with raw sewage?
Is the EPA gonna stop the fluid spewin’?
Not under Scott Pruitt, all he wants to do is sue it
And what about common sense national defence?
You got several naval bases under imminent threat
It’s not just the Gulf Coast, Hampton Roads’
About to have some of Virginia’s dampest homes

Erosion
Of waterfront property
Insurance underwriters can’t even make a profit
Erosion
Of the public trust
Coal burners fillin’ up our lungs with dust
Erosion
Of real estate value
Sea water comin’ up to surround you
Erosion, erosion, erosion

Mr. President
You know! The fire season’s out of control
Losses have doubled since I was six years old
With damage in the hundreds of millions
We lost a whole town in Canada’s wilderness
You know! Climate change is a factor
The Pentagon calls it a “risk enhancer”
So why do you act like you don’t know?
With every new quote that it’s a huge hoax
I really do wanna take the charitable view
Basic ignorance, that’s embarrassing for you
But it’s not as bad as the uncharitable view
That you’re funneling profits to fossil fuel
And getting kickbacks. There’s a lotta gas to burn
And we don’t know what you own, no tax return
All we know is, you got a lotta fossil fuel cronies
In your cabinet, and Tillerson and Putin are homies
And those with the most to gain
From the claim that climate change is a hoax are praying
That you can delay the clean energy transition
Long enough to cash a few chips in

Erosion
Of journalistic standards
We want answers, not panders
Erosion
Of public institutions
Of safeguards against pollution
Erosion
Of civilization
It’s not too late to make changes
Erosion, erosion, erosion

Mr. President

Track Name: Feelings for Reasons

Voiceover: What are emotions?
An evolutionary perspective
Suggests a simple definition of emotions
Based on the forces that shaped them.

Lost my friend to pleasure-seekin’
Good feelings for bad reasons
Freaked out and went off the deep end
Bad feelings for bad reasons

Lost my friend and now I’m grievin’
Bad feelings for good reasons
Played with my kids all weekend
Good feelings for good reasons

There’s nothing more amazing than the brain of a Homo sapien
Nothing more prone to a craving – appetites
Calibrated by a thermostat that decides
When it’s satisfied and when it’s time to have a slice

Evolution with has one plot
Fitness maximization, genetic jump shot
Keys to behavior unlocked, until something comes along
To convert a semi-auto to a bump-stock

Smoke detector principle: the brain trigger-happy
Every snapping twig a potential predator attacking
Safe assumption, when predators are snacking
But when it’s panic attacking, it gets a bit distracting

The system is adapted to the triggers of the past
But the mechanisms jam in the modern mishegas
Mismatch, a brain open to learning, a system dopaminergic
The next drug invented, I really hope I’m allergic

I know ‘cause I learned it, enjoyment is a fitness key
The shape of an opioid gets in between
Oxy is a proxy for a natural poppy
In the brain that signals what kind of action to copy

And after addiction, comes manic depression
Which tends to intervene after a massive rejection
When status competitions beat you into submission
Depression is a mechanism to get you to pivot

Just like pain is a mechanism to get you to change
Position and quickly get your fingers out of the flames
With minimal tissue damage sustained – I miss my friend
Now is the rationalization of our discontent

Lost my friend to pleasure-seekin’
Good feelings for bad reasons
Freaked out and went off the deep end
Bad feelings for bad reasons

Lost my friend and now I’m grievin’
Bad feelings for good reasons
Played with my kids all weekend
Good feelings for good reasons

Lost my friend, and I’m still feelin’ the hurt from it
I see his face reflected in random surfaces
Is he alive or dead? This vivid search image
Is adaptive when actively determining where a person is

Grief, is it an adaptive feeling that triggers
Rumination: “I could’ve done something different”?
And if it’s fully out of my hands, does it enhance
My assessment of risk in the makin’ of future plans?

I can’t… the ache is sharp and intense
And no less painful when I’m makin’ it make sense
How many weeks get to elapse after a major event
Before the DSM is ready to say I’m "depressed"?

Drifting in a daze, contemplating giving up
Feeling like a bacterium with flailing cilia
Of course it’s better to chart random courses
Than persist in one direction, into a vortex

So true, organisms do what they’re supposed to
Act as if fitness enhancement is the only rule
Evolution gave us high mood and low mood
To assess the relevant situations we go through

Persisting in the pursuit of a goal that’s not gonna go through
Triggers a hopeless feelin’ of low fuel
Even in the produce section of Whole Foods
Infinite calories available, but no juice

Just a mobile screen in my hand scrolling the feed
Everybody seems happier and more successful than me
Until ambition triggers a manic episode
I’m about to go platinum with this scientifical flow!

But no, now I’m back on the sofa, my daughter’s upstairs doing homework
My friend is coming over, he’s on his bipolar meds and he’s sober
And no longer chasing the ultimate feeling
And yes, it helps to know the ultimate reason

Lost my friend to pleasure-seekin’
Good feelings for bad reasons
Freaked out and went off the deep end
Bad feelings for bad reasons

Lost my friend and now I’m grievin’
Bad feelings for good reasons
Played with my kids all weekend
Good feelings for good reasons

[Repeat Chorus]

Voiceover: What are emotions?

Emotions are specialized states that adjust
Physiology, cognition, subjective experience
Facial expressions, and behavior
In ways that increase the ability
To meet the adaptive challenges of situations
That have recurred over the
Evolutionary history of a species.

Emotions are for our genes, not us.

Track Name: T.V.O.L. (feat. Aaron Nazrul)

E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N
Lines in your family tree unbroken
This view of life, T-V-O-L
Take a look and see for yourself

Selection selection selection
Natural, artificial and sexual
I’m lookin’ to Darwin to figure the form
Of an organ, adaptive or vestigial
Everything comes with a precedent
Genetic and cultural replicants
Selection is when one of them is successful
At passin’ it on to the next of kin

Selection selection selection
It’s like clockin’ an extra dimension
It’s like Neo perceivin’ the Matrix
Increasin’ your depth of perception
Selection selection, the reach of it’s awesome
From pollinators to trees when they blossom
From the beak of the finch to people who went
From quadrupedal to walkin’

Selection, don’t be afraid of it
Life evolved, no one created it
The genome of every organism, nature is
Always mutating and changing it
Selection selection selection
It’s a question of comprehension
Some people can see it and study it
Others believe it’s the devil’s invention

Selection, the science is settled
Every religious objection’s been vetted
And rejected, selection is happening
The only question is: in which direction?
Selection selection selection
Embrace it for all of its benefits
It’s paving the way for advances in everything
From robotics to medicine

E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N
Look at the world with two eyes open
This view of life, T-V-O-L
Learn to read it and it speaks for itself
E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N
Lines in your family tree unbroken
This view of life, T-V-O-L
Take a look and see for yourself

This view of life is magnificent
No living thing is really insignificant
Organisms are part of a tapestry
Takin’ us back to abiogenesis
And every creature is really your relative
From trees to people to krill
And it’s easy to see the resemblance
And when you spot it say “T-V-O-L”

This view of life is changing economies
People aren’t as selfish as they’re thought to be
Altruism is often adaptive and that should be
Part of our public policies
Does freedom mean freedom to kill?
Freedom to die in the street or to steal?
Look for the tragedies of the commons
And when you see them say “T-V-O-L”

This view of life is adaptable
Ready to follow wherever the facts go
Darwin just laid out the vision and showed how
Origins could be natural
He didn’t fill out the map though
There’s so much more that we can reveal
And every new fact fits into a scaffolding
Known as “T-V-O-L”

This view of life is exceptional
There isn’t another one so successful
At linkin’ together so many domains
In a way that’s simple and algorithmical
Whenever selection and variation
And heredity can be revealed
As part of a system, Darwinism
Is in effect: “T-V-O-L”

This view of life is full of grandeur
And majesty, but we lack the mastery
Of it to tackle the challenges facing
Humanity in this century
This view of life is the only way to
Make sense of how people think and feel
So make it a mission to celebrate
The vision: “T-V-O-L”

E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N
Look at the world with two eyes open
This view of life, T-V-O-L
Learn to read it and it speaks for itself
E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N
Lines in your family tree unbroken
This view of life, T-V-O-L
Take a look and see for yourself

Track Name: Destruction

Tell me again and again and again
You don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction

Mr. President I’m back again after a hell of year
With a message you really don’t wanna hear
Climate change is real, and everything except for
Your legacy will disappear, so lend me your ear

And let me hit you with some info you don’t get to ignore
It’s from a federal scientific advisory board
Straightforward, it’s got the NAS's support
The National Climate Assessment Special Report

It's real! Even secretary Mattis knows it
Expanding ocean’s putting military plans in motion
With a risk enhancer the chances of disasters go up
Look at the fires in California

Let me spell it out for you: rising temperatures
Without precipitation triggers drought conditions
Liquid evaporates and vegetation’s dry as tinder
And that’s why the state was on fire all winter

So what’s the message you’re sending the American people
Swearing to weasel out of the Paris Agreement?
Did you notice the 2017 hurricane season?
It was extreme, for the very same reason

It's the same message you’re sending to Puerto Ricans
When they’re storm-weakened and denied the support of FEMA
Maria’s intensity was the ocean catching a fever
While you’re tossin' paper towels at the crowd like a diva

Attackin’ Colin Kaepernick just to try to distract us from
The fact of indictments landing on your campaign manager
Or whatever the latest scandal plaguin’ your cabinet
Every department head appointed to dismantle it

Rippin’ us off, ridiculous Betsy DeVos
Never seen a public school or even stepped in its halls
The CDC is takin’ “science" and “evidence" off
The list of permitted words, which is medicine’s loss

And what about Harvey, not the sexual predator
Your competitor for the credit of Molester In Chief
I mean the one that gave Texas an enema
Climate change took the regular chances and straight tripled them

Check the level of deluge in Houston
Four feet of rain in as many days, boosted
A foot or more by human carbon pollution
You’ve been accused of fossil fuel collusion

Of conspiracy with a Petro-State
To make American energy policy retrograde
Every renewable project, you said “no way”
But the pipelines and the drilling gets okayed?

So congratulations, you’re the Neville Chamberlain
Of temperature change, ‘cause instead of facin’ it
You deliver craven misinformation
With a straight face to the nation

Tell me again and again and again
You don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction

What’s the deal? You keep tellin’ me the threat isn’t real
But I’m beginnin’ to feel you got something to conceal
Credible people tell us emissions are lethal
You’re just tryin’ to give investors in ‘em a better yield

So what do we do, with a do-nothin federal government?
The electorate can get rid of republicans
Up and down the ticket as a punishment for Trumpism
The EPA’s got a double agent runnin’ it

But we can skip the federal regulations and act
A city can have a plan, a company and
Even a whole industry can; emissions are getting capped
By the C-40 mega-city initiative pact

And remember, the Paris Agreement isn’t rescinded
Every country except for America’s still in it
Plus a lot of states are still ready to build with it
America’s Pledge, fifty percent still committed

Mr. President, it’s already too late
To bring your descendants anything but the heaviest shame
That’s your legacy, mistake after mistake
With climate change at the top of the list of messes you made

But that’s enough about you
It’s time for the next election cycle to rout you
I know you’re not gonna change, you don’t know how to
But we can still deal with the climate crisis without you

Tell me again and again and again
You don’t believe
We’re on the eve of destruction

Track Name: Freedom Remix (feat. Matt Layzell)

Mayor Pete Voiceover:
Freedom does not belong to just one political party
Our conservative friends care about freedom
But they only make it part of the way
Freedom from taxes, freedom from regulation
As though government were the only thing
That can make somebody unfree
But it’s not true!
Your freedom depends on a lot more
Than just the size of your government

My freestyle ain’t free; it’s highly regulated
That’s what keeps it elevated instead of degraded
I voluntarily restrain it, so you get something from it
It’s free but it’s not free, it needs infrastructure
You wanna hear a freestyle that’s really free?
Check it out: Blah-blah-blah-blah-blaow!
Yeah, I improvised every syllable in that sequence!
But was the lack of semantic content a weakness?
Okay, here’s a freestyle that’s slightly less free
Wayne Gretzky painted on jetski
Try to sell it on Etsy – yeah!
Those words came straight off of the top of my dome!
But in retrospect there wasn’t much of a point in the flow
So I suppose when I freestyle, it should have more parameters
So you could tell the difference between professionals and amateurs
It’s gotta work sonically, rhythmically, and logically
It's better off with better laws, kinda like market economies

Chasin’ life and liberty
Freedom lovin’ but freedom ain’t free
Freedom from tyranny
Freedom from livin’ too free
Free to make a mess and leave
But that freedom ain’t free
Keep it on a leash
‘Cause that freedom ain’t free

It ain’t free, too much freedom is dangerous
Your freedom to swing a fist ends where my face begins
Freedom ain’t free, freedom involves tradeoffs
We don’t want a banker to be free like Bernie Madoff
People, freedom ain’t free, freedom for Cecil the Lion
Means you gotta take away the freedom of Don Jr. to buy him
Yeah freedom ain’t free, too much freedom, I’ve had enough
Of the freedom to stash money tax-free in Panama
Freedom from predators, not freedom for predators
Freedom from shaky loans promoted by shady creditors
I want you to have the freedom to say whatever you’re thinkin’
But not the freedom to drive on the highway when you’re heavy drinkin’
I want freedom from bein’ shot randomly in the street
That freedom’s bigger than your second amendment freedom to pack heat
I just want to be free to receive needed medical treatment
The threat of medical bankruptcy is not freedom

Chasin’ life and liberty
Freedom lovin’ but freedom ain’t free
Freedom from tyranny
Freedom from livin’ too free
Free to make a mess and leave
But that freedom ain’t free
Keep it on a leash
‘Cause that freedom ain’t free

Freedom ain’t free, on its own it’s chaos
I want freedom like Picasso, not like a baby with crayons
Freedom ain’t free, you want freedom of religion?
I want freedom from religiously bigoted politicians
People, freedom ain’t free, freedom involves sacrifice
If pollution causes harm, pollution should have a price
Freedom ain’t free, you say you want a free market?
I want a market free from people dumpin’ their garbage on me

Freedom ain’t free

Track Name: Can't Stop Remix (feat. Mariella)

Dan Dennett Voiceover:
Many people think the implications of this are dreadful
We don’t really have “free will”, and nothing really matters

Listen to this lyric, it isn’t freestyle, it’s written
I wrote it of my own “free will” – it was my decision
Every intimate constituent part of it was deliberate
I considered how to script it and how to stand and deliver it
Forethought, but that doesn't mean nothin’ comes before thought
Take to look at the source of your thoughts, you might find the door's blocked
If every decision is made in a part of my brain that's invisible to me
That's “will”, but with a subliminal origin, I'm not thinkin' it's too “free”
But if not me, who was it that chose to bust the rhyme?
And if the clock was reset, I bet I could not have done otherwise
If every molecule and brain state was in the same place
The same thing would happen, so what sense does blame make?
Or praise make? I’m trainin’ to bring nothin’ but my game face
Even if the outcome of the race goes back to big bang days
In a deterministic universe that obeys the laws of physics
It takes a magic wand to make a truly uncaused decision
So there’s no such thing as absolute responsibility
And the more we discover, the more we degrade culpability
Every brain tumor found in someone who shoots up a playground
Tells us that we’re nothin’ but brain tumors all the way down

I can’t stop believin’ I can choose
I feel it in my molecules
Words and deeds, not wants and moods
Freedom is only strong when it’s used

I feel it in my molecules
Believin’ I can choose
Freedom
Is only strong when it’s used

Dennett Voiceover:
People are surprisingly good
At distracting themselves
From ominous prospects
But don’t give up hope
Quantum physics to the rescue!

But wait, what if a random quantum fluctuation
Breaks up the universe’s basic deterministic nature?
A swerve we can surf, a wave-particle duality
That puts a human agent back in the chain of causality?
Don’t waste my time with that quantum tomfoolery
If a swerve is truly random, it’s got nothin’ to do with me!
I want “free will” that puts me back in the drivers seat
And makes me the author of the rhymes I recite on beats
I spent a lot of time trainin’ my brain to rhyme
At the drop of a dime; that’s a kind of freedom I can claim as mine
Freedom isn’t a metaphysical state at the level of atoms
It’s a collection of talents that each of us can develop and manage
Freedom evolves, evolution gave us the building blocks
Absolute freedom? Maybe not, but more than a digger wasp
And more than prefrontal cortex lesion patients living today
I’ll take the freedom I’ve got over the non-freedom of Phineas Gage
Freedom is having a brain that can reject options
Detect imposters and dodge sucker punches like boxers
Freedom is having a brain that can navigate obstacles In a continuous exploration of the adjacent possible
A brain that’s free enough to identify goals and pursue them
And recognize the reasons why, even if it’s prone to illusions
Freedom, it’s what you have to skip a song or rewind it
And it’s yours to lose, if you lack the will to find it

I can’t stop believin’ I can choose
I feel it in my molecules
Words and deeds, not wants and moods
Freedom is only strong when it’s used

I feel it in my molecules
Believin’ I can choose
Freedom
Is only strong when it’s used

Dennett Voiceover:
Free will is like the air we breath
We count on it, but it is neither a
Metaphysical background condition
Nor a fundamental physical condition It evolved, and is still evolving

Freedom
Is only strong when it’s used

Track Name: Still Off That

Welcome to the future
2019
Better find them a
Nice soft place to land right?
‘Cause they sound high
Pseudo-psychics
Pseudo-skeptics
Pseudo-mystics
It’s all pseudo
It's all pseudo
I'm pseudo-fed-up

I want tomorrow to be better than yesterday
That’s why I’m all about technology
So if you say “slow it down!”
I’ll say fast forward
And if you want the benefits
But not the process then you’re hypocrites
Everybody’s wish list is
For new toys and tools and better medicines
And you can have this wish
Just ask the methodological naturalists
And if your spouse gets sick
Consult professionals never novices
Deep down you all know this
Jay-Z thanks I had to borrow this
To make sure tomorrow is
A bit more hospitable to common sense

Whatever scientists can discover
You want that
When it’s justice and life or death
You want facts
But when you feel threatened by science
It’s all bad
And you can’t bring the future back

Mysticism and pseudo-science
We off that
Placebo effects and magic
Are off track
Religion and superstition
We off that
‘Cause you can’t bring the future back

Tell them fools get off me!
Fraud we off that
Quacks we off that
Chiropractic?
Hell yeah, we off that
Is you still on that?
You're better of crackin' a packet of bubble wrap

It ain’t black vs white; it ain’t east vs west
It’s about the scientific method against myths
It’s colour-blind justice and double-blind tests
So you can’t make claims if you lack evidence
You say “It suits me best”
But you haven’t ruled out those placebo effects
And yeah it’s been tested
Prayer doesn’t work against illnesses
And neither does a sugar pill
Nobody gets cancer from a windmill
Chill! Just like the Hawaiians
Ask 'em about GMO papayas
I'm with Mark Lynas, protect the environment
Give it the best of biotech sciences
Manure is organic, but we leave it behind us
Look in the future to find us

Whatever scientists can discover
You want that
When it’s justice and life or death
You want facts
But when you feel threatened by science
It’s all bad
And you can’t bring the future back

Mysticism and pseudo-science
We off that
Placebo effects and magic
Are off track
Religion and superstition
We off that
‘Cause you can’t bring the future back

Tell them fools get off me!
Fraud we off that
Ghosts we off that
God we off that
Yeah, we off that
Is you still on that?
You better take a message
He's not gonna call back

I don’t give a measle how your beliefs go
Get a vaccine or don't come around people
Unless you got a medical reason exemption
Those are the people that need your protection
Get the shot! Not the suspension
Of homeopathic alternative medicine
I don't give a chakra if it's holistic
I just want evidence-based statistics
Eradicate diseases
Don't give 'em back to the faith-healers
And I don’t give a shroom if you hallucinate
Just don’t try to make any truthful claims
Unless you can show us the proof we crave
‘Cause no aliens ever flew my way
So now it’s time to relax
Your mind and learn a couple science facts

Whatever scientists can discover
You want that
When it’s justice and life or death
You want facts
But when you feel threatened by science
It’s all bad
And you can’t bring the future back

Mysticism and pseudo-science
We off that
Placebo effects and magic
Are off track
Religion and superstition
We off that
‘Cause you can’t bring the future back

Tell them fools get off me!
Astrology we off that
Reiki we off that
Naturopathics?
Hell yeah, we off that
Is you still on that?
Test every treatment
And see where they fall flat

Test every treatment
And see where they fall flat

Track Name: Redemption (feat. Jessie Davis)

Oh sinner man
Where you gonna run to?
On that day

Okay, Mr. President... let’s get into it
The fourth climate assessment, it’s a definitive
Synthesis of the evidence, have you read it yet?
It’s your report, straight from the Executive

It says right here: “Produced by the White House”
I’ve got summary notes for you to write down
You might want to lie down, or raise an eyebrow
People are dying in America right now

From high-powered supercharged hurricane torrents
In the five category or the four like Florence
A hundred-year storm every year is historic
But you just ignore it, ‘cause your gut tells a different story

So you go to California like a tourist
When the place is scorched and say they oughta "rake the forest"
You don’t read climate change reports?!
Hot things burn more, Agent Orange

And if you’re waiting for an economic incentive
The vulnerable sector losses are documented
In the hundreds of billions, and you’re on Twitter
Every time an immigrant gets a parking ticket?!

What’s wrong Mr. President? Did you confuse
The climate with the weather? Weather is like your mood
Even you can have a minute of benevolent cool
Your temperament stays narcissistic and rude

And the climate stays getting hotter on a cold day
Okay, you’re tryin’ to hold your base
But they’re snowflakes, even they will go away
When the special prosecutor shows his whole case

So brace yourself for the impact friction
Tryin’ to bring back Nixon, skin bag edition
You got elected as a big tactician
But sinner man, you can’t run from redemption

Oh sinner man
Where you gonna run to?
On that day

Temperature’s rising, the woods are on fire
Ocean’s rising higher and higher
People are rising, a tide’s on the move
Redemption’s waiting for you

Redemption only comes from confession
And cooperation like the rest of your henchman
So the rest can clean up the mess you left us
The extra decades of combustion engines

Sloshing around, extra cars on the ground
Engineering solutions that are still not found
The high carbon count we still gotta draw down
You’re the toast of the fossil fuel market now

But the garbage found in a kid’s lungs wheezin’
That’s what plagues the dreams of Ebenezer
Congratulations on a future without any meaning
Either oblivion or haunted by many demons

Or... there’s many paths to redemption
None of them involve apathy or inattention
None involve rejection of the scientific method
All of them involve comin’ straight to your senses

Temperature’s rising, the woods are on fire
Ocean’s rising higher and higher
People are rising, a tide’s on the move
Redemption’s waiting for you

Redemption is medicine, it means you heal
It’s the next generation with extreme new zeal
It’s the green new deal that we’re keen to seal
The climate doesn’t give a soybean how you feel

It cares about one thing: radiative forcing
You got in bed with Vladimir and Alexander Torshin
But that doesn’t stop the sun scorchin’
Or the rotation of the democratic door swing

Punishing Republicans, it’s already started
Renounce Trump now or forever be tarnished
Join the Bipartisan Climate Change Caucus
And back the Carbon Dividend Act in Congress

It’s gonna take a major mobilization to switch it up
From Rosie the Riveter to grandma’s pension fund
And all the fossil fuel stock it’s divesting from
Let the voices sing as one ’til redemption comes

Temperature’s rising, the woods are on fire
Ocean’s rising higher and higher
People are rising, a tide’s on the move
Redemption’s waiting for you

Oh sinner man
Where you gonna run to?
On that day

Where you gonna run to?

Track Name: Check One Too

Check check
Double check some truth
If I could check one
You could check one too

Who’s the best technician of cognitive dissonance?
The most improbably competent lyricist?
Baba Brinkman is competitionless
No song ever said what I wanted so I invented it
In hip-hip boastin’ and braggin’ is not uncommon
But I can toast to launching a couple of novel genres
I called it “Lit-Hop”, when I started with Chaucer
And then I was a peer-reviewed rappin’ Darwin apostle
Call it what you wanna call it, it’s always been rap
Novel species, not a novelty act
Hip-hop is a big tent, you got a problem with that?
I found a cozy little corner to set up shop and give back
Took the concept of concept rap and ran with it
Take a topic, examine it, make it simultaneously
Crazy poppin’ and accurate, not immaculate
Cognition is flawed but hey, take a stab at it
Try to fit some evidence to your theories and prove
That what you’re sayin’ is true, instead of just sharin’ your views
In this era of fake news, you too
Can make a contribution by embracing peer review
You probably got a theory or two that you’re married to
You probably think a couple of conspiracies are true
Some kind of dispute with a materialist view
You expect a paradigm shift, Thomas Kuhn
You probably got a favorite kind of alternative medicine
And figure medical professionals bury the evidence
Whatever your pleasure is, I really get it
I just need a good reason to accept it

Check one two, what it come to
Everyone believe what you want to
Check one two three four, we can be more
Double checkin’ is a resource

Check three four five six, check logic
Instead of just checkin’ optics
Check check five six seven eight
Every decision you make, take a second to meditate

Reflect and check check seven eight nine ten
And then do it again
Check check double check some truth
If I can check one you can check one too

I’m just Gen-Xer tryin’ to keep up with the times
I probably got the original idea from Tribe
In the 90s, beats, rhymes, and the meaning of life
But the meaning has gotta fit with the science
If you only want to talk about it with the open-hearted
Subjective perspective perfected by most artists
I respect it, but objective is harder
And perspective is shared, so don’t bogart it
We gotta live on this planet together
I figure we could learn to love and examine it better
How bad could it get if we never had fact checkers?
Reality bites back after bad guesswork
As long as we’re settling all scores
Let’s get it from measuring contours – tryin’ to solve for X
Instead of the mental parkour
To protect your wrong diagnosis, wrong cure
I know I’m kind of hard core rationalist
But I bet you’re glad this kinda rappin’ exists
If checkin’ twitter makes you feel like slashin’ a wrist
Deep breath… analysis

Check one two, what it come to
Everyone believe what you want to
Check one two three four, we can be more
Double checkin’ is a resource

Check three four five six, check logic
Instead of just checkin’ optics
Check check five six seven eight
Every decision you make, take a second to meditate

Reflect and check check seven eight nine ten
And then do it again
Check check double check some truth
If I can check one you can check one too

I see a lot of division in real honest opinion
It’s not a unique feature of a Republican
I like Mayor Pete and I really want him to win it
Even if I don’t know a thing about a position
His positions are probably real thoughtful and clever
I’m just sayin’ – we really need to think about intuition
And how much intuition is influencing decisions
Go with your gut if you wanna be like the president
A champion of postmodern relativism
Never retreat, treat the facts as irrelevant
Everything is political, keep your rationalism
Investigative journalism? Treat it as the enemy
Or, if you wanna be a different kind of citizen
Be like Obama, treat your gut with suspicion
A "gut check" means against reason and evidence
If you’ve got a hunch, go see a physician
Or a statistician, and try to figure the patterns
Both the base rate and the evidence matters
As soon as that idea goes metastatic
We can all live happily ever after

Check one two, what it come to
Everyone believe what you want to
Check one two three four, we can be more
Double checkin’ is a resource

Check three four five six, check logic
Instead of just checkin’ optics
Check check five six seven eight
Every decision you make, take a second to meditate

Reflect and check check seven eight nine ten
And then do it again
Check check double check some truth
If I can check one you can check one too

Check check double check some truth
If I can check one you can check one too

Check check double check some truth
If I can check one you can check one…

Track Name: T. V. O. L. Remix

E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N
Lines on your family tree unbroken
This View of Life – T. V. O. L.
Take a look and see for yourself

Selection selection selection
Natural, artificial and sexual
I’m lookin’ to Darwin to figure the form
Of an organ, adaptive or vestigial
Everything comes with a precedent
Genetic and cultural replicants
Selection is when one of them is successful
At passin’ it on to the next of kin

Selection selection selection
It’s like clockin’ an extra dimension
It’s like Neo perceivin’ the Matrix
Increasin’ your depth of perception
Selection selection, the reach of it’s awesome
From pollinators to trees when they blossom
From the beak of the finch to people who went
From quadrupedal to walkin’

Selection, don’t be afraid of it
Life evolved, no one created it
The genome of every organism, nature is
Always mutating and changing it
Selection selection selection
It’s a question of comprehension
Some people can see it and study it
Others believe it’s the devil’s invention

Selection, the science is settled
Every religious objection’s been vetted
And rejected, selection is happening
The only question is: in which direction?
Selection selection selection
Embrace it for all of its benefits
It’s paving the way for advances in everything
From robotics to medicine

E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N
Look at the world with two eyes open
This View of Life – T. V. O. L.
Learn to read it and it speaks for itself

E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N
Lines on your family tree unbroken
This View of Life – T. V. O. L.
Take a look and see for yourself

This view of life is magnificent
No living thing is really insignificant
Organisms are part of a tapestry
Takin’ us back to abiogenesis
And every creature is really your relative
From trees to people to krill
And it’s easy to see the resemblance
And when you spot it say “T. V. O. L.”

This view of life is changing economies
People aren’t as selfish as they’re thought to be
Altruism is often adaptive and that should be
Part of our public policies
Does freedom mean freedom to kill?
Freedom to die in the street or to steal?
Look for the tragedies of the commons
And when you see them say “T. V. O. L.”

This view of life is adaptable
Ready to follow wherever the facts go
Darwin just laid out the vision and showed how
Origins could be natural
He didn’t fill out the map though
There’s so much more that we can reveal
And every new fact fits into a scaffolding
Known as “T. V. O. L.”

This view of life is exceptional
There isn’t another one so successful
At linkin’ together so many domains
In a way that’s simple and algorithmical
Whenever selection and variation
And heredity can be revealed
As part of a system, Darwinism
Is in effect: “T. V. O. L.”

This view of life is full of grandeur
And majesty, but we lack the mastery
Of it to tackle the challenges facing
Humanity in this century
This view of life is the only way to
Make sense of how people think and feel
So make it a mission to celebrate
The vision: “T. V. O. L.”

E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N
Look at the world with two eyes open
This View of Life – T. V. O. L.
Learn to read it and it speaks for itself

E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N
Lines on your family tree unbroken
This View of Life – T. V. O. L.
Take a look and see for yourself

Track Name: See From Space Remix

Can you see from space?

This is inspector Zorg, reporting back
To the galactic order… [static]
…determine whether it’s worth
Establishing a diplomatic channel with earth
[static] …still in its late juvenile phase…

So I made an assessment of the entire range
Of the planet’s native biological agents

The most common is a basic single-celled
Liquid dweller, cells that stick together
Form colonies of trillions called “bodies”
That develop from single-celled progeny

You already know, natural selection
Designs organisms to maximize descendants
And the life forms here are no exception
All descended from a common ancestor

Including one ape species that’s an oddity
The radio waves came from its technology
And you’re not gonna believe it on Betelgeuse
But these apes often choose not to reproduce

In fact, most of their time is wasted
Emanating strange noises from their faces
Instead of baby makin’, sonic arrangements
Of which this report is a demonstration

What can you see?
What can you see?
What can you see?
From space?

This bipedal ape species, these “humans”
Don’t even have tentacles like Betelgeuseans
Its limbs are modified fins
And its jaws are just modified gill slits

It’s a mammal, it’s got mammal habits
But it’s actually just an adapted “land fish”
And like fish, each one has two parents
Each one of two morphological variants

Male and female, they’re called sexes
And with some exceptions they behave different
The males are physically bigger and more aggressive
More prone to stupid risks and more reckless

As expected, that’s what mammals are like
Females reward the winner after the fight
Or choose among contenders selectively
While males mate more opportunistically

Except in these humans
Females display too, and males do some choosing
Especially when investing in offspring
And long-term costly signaling of monogamy

Humans are odd things, I tried to determine
Whether each behavior comes from instinct or learning
Just don’t ask them which is which
They don’t know, and they find the question offensive

What can you see?
What can you see?
What can you see?
From space?

These humans evolved their brains in odd ways
Wishful thinking makes them fall for con games
Betelgeusians evolved to know ourselves
Humans evolved to blame flaws on someone else

And take credit for gains, they jockey for status
Overdosing on calories, adapted to famines
They’re phobic of absent snakes and arachnids
With no fear of traffic or cigarette ashes

Most believe in telepathic gods and ghosts
And pretend to know things they obviously don’t
They form coalitions and reject evidence
If the facts are a threat to their tribal memberships

And yet, they are master cooperators
Space station making disease eradicators
They display a primitive collective intelligence
And sometimes even assist non-relatives

It’s amazing, what these apes have achieved
Their brains are a teeming accumulation of memes
Ideas, tactics and tool-making schemes
Which remain unmastered until their late teens

They only just found out how evolution works
And how it illuminates every mood and urge
Just give ‘em a few years and they might deserve
The name of Ape that Understood the Universe